Sultan Walad In the Footsteps of Rumi and Shams

by Küçük, Hülya; Gamard, Ibrahim W.

• ISBN13: 9781887752176
• ISBN10: 188775217X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2023-01-01
• Publisher: Fons Vitae

Summary

This book is an introduction to the much neglected life and works of Sultan Walad, Rumi’s son and interpreter who had extraordinary Sufi teachers: his father, Shams-e Tabrizi, and (after the latter’s final disappearance) his father’s favorite disciple, Salah al-Din the goldsmith. After Rumi’s death (in 1273), Sultan Walad humbly and patiently accepted the leadership of his father’s chosen successor, Chalabi Husam al-Din (for twelve years) and another leading disciple of his father’s, Karim al-Din (for seven years) before becoming the overall leader of the emerging Mawlawi Order. During these years he worked to ensure the accuracy of copies of his father’s masterpiece of Islamic Sufism: the Mathnawi, as well as to compose a diwan (of collected poems), three mathnawis, and a book of prose—all of which express, in a generally simple manner, the profound mystical wisdom of his father and associates. This book is scholarly and thorough, as well as readable; it offers a rewarding exposition of the main teachings of Sufism during the era of Rumi and Shams.

Author Biography

Hülya Küçük is Professor of the History of Sufism at Necmettin Erbakan University in Konya, Turkey. She is the author of The Role of the Bektashis in Turkey’s National Struggle [2002] as well as other books and numerous papers and articles in Turkish. Her articles in English include ”Sufism: the Mysticism Developed by Muslims,” 2007; ”A Brief History of Western Sufism," 2008; ”Sultan Walad’s Understanding of Sufism: Between Populism and Theosophy,” 2010; “Sultan Walad’s Role in the Foundation of the Mevlevi Sufi Order,” 2012, among others. Ibrahim W. Gamard is a retired Ph.D. psychologist living in California who joined the Sufi lineage of Rumi, the Mevlevi Order, in 1976. The next year he visited Rumi’s tomb in Konya, Turkey. In 1984, he converted to Islam and completed the Hajj in 1999. Soon after that, he began teaching himself Persian in order to study Rumi’s poetry. In 1985, he began a collaboration with an Afghan scholar, Rawan Farhadi, to translate the nearly 2,000 quatrains attributed to Rumi. This was published as The Quatrains of Rumi [2008].

Table of Contents

Contents Acknowledgements 10 Foreword by Omid Safi 11 Preface 29 Notes on Transliterations 31 List of Abbreviations 32 Introduction: Some Notes on the Main Sources and References 35 Part One: The Life of Sul?an Walad 49 1.1 His Semi-Hagiographical Life 49 The Era of His Lifetime 49 Sul?an Walad’s Relations with Seljuq Rulers 51 Sul?an Walad’s Relations with Mongol Rulers 53 Sufism During This Era 54 Anatolian People in Sul?an Walad’s Time 56 His Semi-Hagiographical Life 58 His Name and Family Members 58 Sul?an Walad and His Father 59 Sul?an Walad’s Marriages and Children 61 Sul?an Walad’s Love for Quniya (Konya) 64 Sul?an Walad’s Death 65 1.2 Sul?an Walad’s Scholarly and Mystical Life and Works 66 His Personality as a Scholar, an Artist, and a Sufi 66 His Sufi Mentors: A Semi-Hagiographical Overview 69 Sul?an Walad the Sheikh, and His Successors 83 His Works 84 His References 106 1.3 His Legacy 107 Part Two: Sufism in the Ma‘arif of Sul?an Walad 125 2.1 Sul?an Walad’s Understanding of Sufism 125 Two Harmonious Mentors of Sul?an Walad: Shams of Tabriz and his Tongue, Rumi 127 The Innermost Soul of Shams [sirr-é Shams] or The Secret Shams [Shams-é sirr] 149 The Difference between Shams and Sul?an Walad 159 Conclusion of the Debate on Walad Branch-Shams Branch 163 2.2 Sul?an Walad’s Attitude Towards ‘Alawism and Shi’ism 164 2.3 The Ma‘arif as a Key to Sul?an Walad’s Understanding of Popular-Operative Sufism 166 Ascetic Renunciation [zuhd] 166 The Saint [wali] and Sainthood [walaya] 169 The Lower Soul [al-nafs] 174 The Sheikh 178 Wonders of the Saints [karamat] 183 The Mystical Concert and Ecstatic Movements [sama‘] 184 Spiritual Retreat [khalwat/chilla] 189 Knowledge Pertaining to the Hidden World 193 Death and the Hereafter 194 Part Three: Theosophical Sufism Combined with Popular Sufism 201 3.1 Sul?an Walad’s Methodology in Examining Theosophical Topics 201 Considering the Capacity for Understanding of Those Addressed 206 Making Use of Parables and Examples 218 Repetition 220 Telling Some Divine Secrets Explicitly 221 3.2 Annihilation [fana’] 224 3.3 Divine Unity in Sul?an Walad’s Understanding of Sufism 232 3.3.1 Introduction to the History of the Understanding of the Unity of God [taw?id] in Sufism: From Unity of God to Unity of Being 232 3.3.2 Sul?an Walad’s Understanding of Divine Unity 244 God, Man, and the Universe 246 The Essential Meaning of Divine Unity 261 Conclusion 265 Endnotes 269 Bibliography 329 A. Manuscripts and Facsimiles 329 B. Published Books 330 C. Articles and Parts from Books 337 D. Web Pages 341 Appendix of Images Sixteenth Century Turkish Depictions 343 Photos from the Mevlana Museum related to Sultan Walad 347 Index 361